Time Stands Still
by xxThnksFrThMmrsxx
Summary: I'm trying not to show him how scared I am. Scared is the wrong word, more like petrified. He aims the gun and fires...
1. Chapter 1

Time Stands Still-Chapter 1

I wonder why everyone is running away. I thought to myself as I'm walking the halls of Degrassi. Suddenly, I see a familiar face, but this face is all wrong…

"Hi, Emma, sorry I kissed you. You know, I thought you liked me, but I was wrong. Why would you, you of all people, like _me_?

I'm frozen in place, I'm not even sure my heart is beating in my chest. What was he going to do to me? Instantaneously, my horrible thoughts are interrupted by someone tapping me on my shoulder.

"Emma, come on, he has a gun, let's get out of here."

Sean takes my arm and Toby just stands there, shocked. I grab his arm and start to head out.

"DON'T you walk away from me!"

Me, Sean, and Toby all turn around. Rick walks up to Sean and Toby and tells them get out. Sean doesn't want to, but Toby tells him they can go get help. Once they leave, Rick turns to me.

"I've got big plans for you, Emma. You know, it's all just a shame you ended up rejecting me. I don't like being rejected. You remember what happened to Terri? Yeah, I thought you did, that's minimal compared to what's coming for you. All I did was like you, and now all you're going to do is pay.

"I've lived all my life being rejected…" I tried to tune him out and breathe normally. That's kind of hard to do when someone's pointing a gun to your head. He just keeps going on and on about me pushing him away when he tried to kiss me. If I'd have thought it would involve me fearing for my life, I would've just kissed the guy. Now I wasn't sure if I was going to live or die…

"Well?"

"I'm sorry, what?"

"Emma, Emma, Emma, why can't you just listen to me? I am, of course, the last person you'll see."

"Th-th-the last person?"

"You didn't think I brought this gun to school for nothing, did you? I mean, I already shot Jimmy. Poor guy, he could have gone fast; quick blow to the chest. But no, he had to run. He had to try and get away. So he went painfully, assuming he is dead. So Emma, I'd suggest you just stand there quietly, and if any of your friends gets in the way, I won't hesitate to shoot them too.

"Finally, for once in my life, I'll be the feared, not the fearful. This is gr-"

"Rick, you know firearms aren't allowed on school property."

It's like a miracle. Raddich finally caught Rick and is going to help me. Finally, this is all over…

"Youuuu…" He practically spits the word out; like it disgusts him to even say his name. Raddich just looks confused.

"Me?"

"You didn't do anything, NOTHING, when I told you people were bullying me, and now look what's happened. I want you to feel what I feel: hurt."

"Hurt b-"

Suddenly there was a loud bang, no, loud doesn't even cover it. More like deafening. Then Raddich fell, Rick is trying to get me not to look over there but I do anyways…

Oh my gosh! There's blood gushing out of his face. It's a disgusting site to look at. Maybe that's what's waiting for me. Then Rick turns to me…

"Now Emma, it's your turn…"


	2. Chapter 2

Time Stands Still- Chapter 2

My heart pounding in my chest, I turn to look at Rick; he's smiling and backing up, still pointing the gun at me. Then, suddenly, an idea comes to me. It's actually a pretty good one. I'm surprised I didn't think of it earlier. I have to act now.

"Rick!"

"What? Any last requests before I pull the trigger?"

It's kind of funny that he asked that. For the first time that day, I actually laugh. The noise sounds foreign and far off.

"Um, actually Rick, I'm glad you asked that. I do have a last request."

"Well are you going to tell me, or should I just blow your head off?"

"Can I go to the bathroom?" Please, please, please say yes.

"Kind of odd for a last request; but for you, of course."

It's pretty cool that the bathroom is all the way on the other side of the school. Once he's out of sight, I start running, no, sprinting. Finally I get to the bathroom.

"Oh crap." I don't know if I said that out loud or not. But what I do know is that this is the wrong bathroom. The other one had a window, this one doesn't. I sit there for a while, trying to reassess my 'brilliant' idea. I hear Rick calling my name outside of the room. Thank God I locked the door.

"Emma if you don't open this door in the next two minutes, I'm blowing the hinges off!"

Vents! Yes! If I can stand on the sink and bust the vents out, I'll be able to get to a window. I stand on the sink and punch the ceiling tile out and start to climb in there.

"One more minute, Emma! I'm not kidding! I'll blow these hinges off one by one." Just hold on. I think to myself. I'm almost up there, in fact, all I have to do is pull the tile back in its spot.

I'm interrupted by a loud bang: the sound of bullet against metal. Crap! He's blowing the hinges off just like he said! Start crawling Emma, you don't have time to panic, I tell myself. So I start crawling. As I'm crawling, I hear Rick.

"Emma, Emma, Emma. You don't have to run away from me. You do a terrible job at that, too. I mean, if you were going to climb up into the vents, at least put the ceiling tile back in its spot so I wouldn't know where you were or what you were doing." Crap! Crap! Crap! Run, or crawl fast, whatever, now! So I do. I'm practically on the other side of the school, I think.

BANG!!

"Ah!" The gunshot startles me and I look down. There's a bullet hole in the ceiling.


	3. Chapter 3

Time Stands Still-Chapter 3

Suddenly, the thought occurs to me: he's following me. He knows exactly where I am and is waiting for me to climb out of the vents so he can get a clean shot of blowing my head off.

"See that, Emma? I know I missed you. I meant to miss you because I honestly don't want to kill you. It was all your choice…" Dang he's starting with his speech again. "See, I'm a person you don't want to anger. Too bad Jimmy didn't know that. So he had to pay. And now you're going to pay."

This guy is really starting to piss me off. I look through the tiny bullet hole and see him; directly under it. Okay, I tell myself, this is it. You mess up, you die.

I kick the vent out and it lands right on his head. I mean, it's plaster, but hit on the head unexpectedly can stun you for a while. I jump out and land directly on him. The gun slides across the floor; dazed, Rick gets up and staggers to get it so I run and grab the gun before he can.

"Come on, Emma. Don't do anything you'll regret. I'm really sorry for keeping you here against your will, just, put the gun down. Please."

"You kept me here for who knows how long because I _rejected_ you. You shot Jimmy for no reason. He wasn't the one who did that to you. And, you hurt Terri. You put her in the hospital! You're the sorriest thing I've ever seen. I'm not going to shoot you. I'm not like that, but I do want you to pay. That's why we're going outside right now and you're turning yourself in. I'm not in a good place right now, so even though two seconds ago I said I'm not going to shoot you, don't think I won't hesitate to if you try and hurt one of my friends or make a run for it when we get out there." Wow, did I just say that? Well, I guess being held hostage does stuff to you.

We walk outside: it's total chaos.

"Hey look there he is!"

"Put your hands up sir!"

All I can do is stand and stare wide eyed as these three things happen at once. One: Rick gets freaked and starts running. Two: the officer points his gun right at Rick and fires. Three: I glance over and see Toby looking right at Rick, as if, mentally, he could make him stop moving and just put his hands on his head. Then Toby's eyes get big as he sees Rick's shirt turn bright red and fall to the ground.

"You shot my friend!" Toby looks as if he's either about to cry, or snatch the gun out of the officer's hand and smack him with it. I'm going for the first one.

"Sir, your _friend_ threatened the whole school, _shot_ someone, kept his girlfriend," Toby looks at me as I wince at that conclusion, "hostage, and disobeyed an officer of the law and tried to make a run for it. Sir, your_ friend_ is-was, a dangerous person."

"_Was_?" I heard Toby barely make out a whisper. I guess I wasn't the only one who noticed the past tense of the word. Yeah, he was definitely going to cry. If I could will my frozen in place legs to move, I'd go over there and give him a hug.

"Sir, when I fired that shot, I intended to stop him. And stop him I did. I'm sorry about your friend, but he committed a felony; a serious crime; a-" Toby stops him mid-sentence.

"Well,_ sir_, my friend was bullied and teased, no, not just bullied and teased, so verbally and physically abused that-that he…"

"He what?"

"He was suicidal. Very. Every night he'd call me and say, 'Tobe, this is it; I'm really going to do it. I have the gun and I'm really going to do it.' I'd talk to him, try and calm him. Emma, he really liked you. In fact he told me over and over again, 'You'd better thank Emma, she's the reason I haven't pulled the trigger."

That was it. I couldn't take this any longer. I wasn't the best friend of Paige, but that doesn't mean I'm so scared of her I wouldn't get within hearing range of her. I have to tell; clear Jimmy's name, again, another person I'm not the guy's best friend, but that doesn't mean I don't know things.

"Spinner and Jay did it." I practically spit the words. I knew if I didn't act now, I would eventually chicken out.

All eyes turn on me. "Excuse me young lady?" The officer looks genuinely surprised.

"I said Spinner Mason and Jay Hogart did it. They did the whole paint and feathers job that caused Rick to go over the edge. I honestly have no idea how Rick would connect Jimmy with it. Over the past two days, they've been inseparable."

"Are you sure? This is pretty serious."

"I'm pretty sure. I heard a couple people's conversations."

"Well, I'm going to double check on that, but I assure you, this will be sorted out."

I could hardly believe my ears. It was all over. All done; the pain, the worry, the guilt, it was over. I look over where Toby was. He was no longer there.


End file.
